Rocket was scheduled to die. Now the ex-Sacramento shelter dog is aiding first responders in Houston

Five years ago, a Sacramento shelter dog named Rocket was deemed too energetic to be adopted and scheduled for euthanasia.

Now, Rocket is helping out in Hurricane Harvey as a search dog trained to work with first responders in disasters.

“I think it’s just a testament that … just because an animal ends up in the shelter doesn’t mean that they are an animal that someone doesn’t want or that they don’t have a lot to give to the community,” said Dawn Foster, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, from where Rocket was adopted.

The Sacramento SPCA first recommended Rocket as a search dog in 2012. Shelter workers saw the high energy that made Rocket difficult to adopt as a potential boon for a disaster search dog, Foster said, adding that the SPCA is always looking for animals who “have that instinct to want to do jobs, that … like to play with toys and solve problems.”

But when a canine recruiter from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation tested the border collie mix, he failed.

However, according to the California-based foundation – which has paired several Sacramento SPCA dogs with firefighters and other emergency workers in recent years – the volunteer who tested Rocket couldn’t get him out of her mind. Not wanting to leave Rocket to die, she and her husband adopted the dog, bringing him out on expeditions with another search dog. With their help, Rocket passed his search dog test in 2013.

According to the foundation, Rocket was assigned to Michael Stornetta, an engineer with the Windsor Fire District in Sonoma County. In February 2015, after extensive training, Rocket and Stornetta were certified to work in disaster zones with an Oakland-based Federal Emergency Management Agency task force.

Rocket and Stornetta are one of 14 search dog pairs trained through the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation aiding relief efforts in Texas as Hurricane Harvey displaces tens of thousands of people and floods the state.

Denise Sanders, a spokesperson for the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, said dogs like Rocket are taught to find live people buried beneath rubble or otherwise trapped in the wake of a disaster. When floodwaters recede in Texas, she said, Rocket will help responders “make sure nobody gets left behind” as they walk through neighborhoods devastated by the storm.

“Those dogs with their noses can cover ground much more quickly than humans can,” Sanders said.

Sanders said that after nine years with the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, seeing dogs like Rocket shift from rescued to rescuer “never gets old” for her.

“And we know that there are many more like Rocket out there just waiting to be found,” she said.

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Deputies from Chambers County Sheriff’s Office rescued animals stranded at a flooded shelter in Hankamer, Texas, on Monday, August 28. Appeals to save the animals at Tall Tails Animal Rescue went viral on social media with photos of dogs standing in floodwater inside their cages. “Sheriff Brian C. Hawthorne reports that all the animals have been rescued from the Tall Tails kennel in Hankamer, Texas,” said Chambers County Sheriff’s Office in a statement shared via Facebook. “The animals, along with the owner of the kennel, Kevin Miller, were successfully rescued via air boat.”

Deputies from Chambers County Sheriff’s Office rescued animals stranded at a flooded shelter in Hankamer, Texas, on Monday, August 28. Appeals to save the animals at Tall Tails Animal Rescue went viral on social media with photos of dogs standing in floodwater inside their cages. “Sheriff Brian C. Hawthorne reports that all the animals have been rescued from the Tall Tails kennel in Hankamer, Texas,” said Chambers County Sheriff’s Office in a statement shared via Facebook. “The animals, along with the owner of the kennel, Kevin Miller, were successfully rescued via air boat.”